


No Alternative

by Celandine



Category: Swordspoint Series - Ellen Kushner
Genre: Drama, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-13
Updated: 2011-06-13
Packaged: 2017-10-20 09:38:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/211368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/pseuds/Celandine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec has done his best to run from his past, but events have made it impossible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Alternative

**Author's Note:**

  * For [just_ann_now](https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_ann_now/gifts).



Alec's first attempts at escape had been boyish and typical: hiding in the orchard, running off to the nearest village. He had always been found and brought home again, usually switched. His mother and father thought it was mere naughtiness. Only his sister knew that Alec meant it.

When he was sent to the city, his efforts became more serious. At first they were similar -- wandering about for days, until a servant found him and scolded him home -- but soon he came up with a plan to become a student and disappear into the University. One of the few prudent things he ever did was to pay several of the magisters for a year's lectures in advance, but startlingly soon the rest of the funds he had brought with him were gone on food and drink and lodging.

He scraped by for a time by gambling, winning just often enough to eat more or less regularly, but when the University turned him out he drifted into Riverside.

The fight he got into there would have been his last, had it not been for Richard interceding on his behalf. Why he had done so, Alec never quite understood; he just accepted it.

Richard had been the best escape of all. Not quite _enough_ , but nearly.

Now it was Alec who had to save Richard from a fight _he_ could not win. With dragging steps, Alec made his way to the house he had left so many months before, and to which he had never wished to return. He could think of no other solution to his dilemma.

"Please tell Diane, the Duchess of Tremontaine, that her grandson wishes to see her," he told the startled servant at the door.

**Author's Note:**

> For just_ann_now, from telperion1, who asked for Alec, "escape".


End file.
